Why imagining success doesn't get you there

WASHINGTON POST

Published 12:01 am, Monday, June 27, 2011

It's a mantra for leadership coaches and self-help gurus: Picture yourself achieving your goals, and you'll have a better chance of reaching them. The problem? Doing so could make it harder to reach your target.

Studies over the years have shown that people who engage in "positive fantasies," or idealized images of future outcomes, are less likely to achieve them. And a new study by researchers at New York University's Motivation Lab takes a stab at why: Imagining these successful outcomes saps our energy from doing the hard work it takes to get there.

In four studies, researchers Gabriele Oettingen and Heather Barry Kappes looked at the effect on systolic blood pressure by a variety of "positive fantasies," from students who imagined winning an essay contest to women who visualized themselves looking good in high heels. (Yes, really.)

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Each imagining of success resulted in lower systolic blood pressure. In other words: When the visualizations increased, people's energy decreased.

So leaders are perhaps too apt to think they can help their team reach their goals by painting a picture of what will come if they win.

This is not to say praise and positive reinforcement are bad. People must be reminded that a goal is possible. And it's not to say that such idealized images don't have a time and a place. As the researchers note, if relaxation is a goal, positive images can help you lower the energy you're exerting and potentially perform better.

At the very least, it's a useful reminder that a healthy dose of skepticism and a realistic look at the odds you're up against can do a lot more to help energize people toward a goal than a rosy image of a successful outcome.